Pea huller



PEA HULLER Filed Aug. 12, 1948 WWW: h

vid J; l i av so Patented Get. 31, 1956 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PEAfiULLEfi David J. Watson, Clemson. S. C:

Application August 12, 1948, Serial No. 4332i 3 Claims.

This invention relates to a device for hulling or shelling peas or beanswhich grow in a pod.

An object of the invention is to devise a simple arrangement forremoving peas from the pod by a single operation and requiring the useof only one hand.

My invention involves an arrangement providing aguiding channel throughwhich the pod of the pea or bean is moved by one stroke of the hand. Aslitting knife is associated with the guiding channel to rip open thepod as it is drawn through the channel and a stripper finger ispositioned in line with the guiding channel beyond the slitting bladeand in a position to strip the peas or beans from the pod as the podleaves the guiding channel.

Another object of my invention is to devise a novel structure providinga guiding channel of variable width to conform with the size of the podbeing passed through the channel.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will be apparent from thefollowing description. The invention is illustrated in the accompanyingdrawing in which Figure 1 is a plan view of the huller; Figure 2 is aside elevational view; and Figure 3 is a bottom view of the huller.

Referring to the drawing, a base member I, preferably in the form of anelongated plate, provides a flat, horizontal surface over which the peaor bean pod is drawn during the hulling operation. Plate I is supportedin a horizontal position by any suitable means, such as by the clamp atthe rear end of the plate formed by the bracket 2 secured to the plateand a clamping screw 3 having threaded engagement with the bracket andbeing adapted to clamp the plate to the edge of a table or othersuitable fixed support.

The upper surface of the plate I forms the bottom wall of the guidingchannel through which the pea is moved during hulling operation. The endof the plate is slotted as shown at 4, and a cutting or slitting bladeis clamped within the slot 4 by means of a clamping screw Ii engagingbosses Ia and lb formed on plate I on opposite sides of the slot 4. Asshown in Figure 2, the slitting blade 5 is mounted at an angle to thehorizontal and a tip portion 5a of the blade extends above the uppersurface of the plate I in a position to slit the pod as it is movedalong the surface of the plate.

The side walls of the guiding channel for the pea pod are formed of apair of wall members I and 8 arranged on opposite sides of the slot 4.These wall members are preferably formed as relatively narrow elongatedstrips mounted in vertical planes forming equal angles with the slot 4,to provide a wedge shaped guiding channel for the pods as shown inFigure l. The tip 5a of the cutting blade 5 is positioned within thenarrow end of the guiding channel, and the wall members I and 8 areresiliently mounted so that they may be spread apart at the narrow endof the channel to accommodate pods of varying width. One suitablearrangement for resiliently mounting the walls of the tapered channel isto form the wall members I and 8 of spring material and to mount thesemembers at their forward ends by means of mounting screws Ia and 8apassing vertically through the base plate I. It' will be understood thatnormally the wall members I and 8 are positioned so that the width ofthe channel at the cutting tip 5a is-less than-the 7 width of thesmallest pod likely to be hulled.

A stripper hook or finger 9 is mounted at the end of the plate I, andthe tip of the hook is posi tioned beyond the end of the plate andsomewhat above the upper surface of the plate and in line with theguiding channel formed by the side walls '3 and 8. As shown in Figure 2,the tip of the hook is rearwardly inclined for a purpose to be describedlater.

Operation of the huller is as follows: The pea or bean pods are movedone at a time through the guiding channel and the pods are ripped openon the bottom side as they pass over the cutting tip 5a of the slittingblade 5. As the pea pod moves off of the end of the plate I and is drawnpast the stripper hook 9, the end of the hook enters the slit in the podand strips the peas from the pod as the pod continues past the hook. Therearwardl inclined end of the hook 9 causes the peas in the pod to movedownwardly through the slit in the pod. As the peas are removed from thepod by the hook 9, the fall downwardly and may be caught in a pan orother receptacle placed immediately below the stripper hook.

While the pods may be moved manually through my huller device, it isobvious that the pods may be passed through the huller by knownarrangements of driving rolls and stationary guides.

I claim:

1. A hulling device comprising a base member providing a horizontalsurface over which a pod is to be moved, a pair of vertically arrangedwall members mounted on the upper face of said base and providing atapered guiding channel for said pods, the narrow end of said channelbeing positioned adjacent an edge of said base member, resilient meansnormally holding said wall members at a separation less than the widthof a pod to be hulled and permitting spreading of said wall members by apod passing along said channel, a slitting blade carried by said basemember and positioned in the narrow portion of said channel for slittingthe bottom part of the pod passing 'through said channel, and a stripperelement secured to said base member adjacent the narrow end of saidchannel and having a reversely directed hook element extending beyondsaid edge of said base member and having the reversely directed tipthereof extending above said horizontal surface and in alignment withsaid guiding channel.

2. A hulling device comprising a base member formed of a flat elongatedplate, means at one end of said plate for supporting the same in ahorizontal position, the free end portion of said plate being slottedlongitudinally thereof with a vertical slot, a slitting blade positionedwithin said slot and having a cutting edge extending above the uppersurface of said plate, clamping means secured to the free end of saidplate on opposite sides of said slot for clamping said blade in saidslot, a pair of relatively narrow strips of spring-like materialarranged upon the upper surface of said plate on opposite sides of saidvertical slot to provide a V-shaped guiding channel with the wide endthereof facing the supported end of said plate, means rigidly supportingI a of said plate and having the tip thereof'extending above the planeof the upper surface of said plate and in alignment with said guidingchannel.

3. A hulling device comprising a base member formed of a fiat elongatedplate, means at one end of said plate for supporting the same in ahorizontal position, a slitting blade carried by said plate adjacent thefree end thereof and having a cutting edge extending above the uppersurface of said plate at the center thereof, a pair of relatively narrowstrips of spring-like material arranged upon the upper surfaces of saidplate on opposite sides of the longitudinal center line of the plate toprovide a V-shaped guiding channel with the wide end thereof facingtowards the supported end of said plate, means rigidly sup- .portingsaid strips at the ends thereof which form the wide end of said channel,the free ends of said strips being located on opposite sides of saidslitting blade and being free to flex outwardly from said blade, and astripper element secured to the free end of said plate and having areversely directed hook element positioned beyond the end of said plateand having the reversely directed tip thereof extending above the planeof the upper surface of said plate and in alignment with said guidingchannel.

I DAVID J. WATSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,215,167 Kemp Feb. 6, 19171,580,228 Wright Apr. 13, 1926 1,808,470 Manges June 2, 1931 2,277,777Ponto Mar. 31, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 373,447 GreatBritain May 26, 1932

